


Before the Storm

by orphan_account



Category: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Abuse of Authority, Bad Decisions, Bipolar Disorder, Bruce Banner-centric, Communism, Dissociation, Eventual Romance, Fantastic Four Cameos, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Magic, Mental Health Issues, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rare Pairings, Romance, Science, Science Bros, Victor von Doom doesn't have a mask welded to his face, Victor von Doom has Bipolar, marxism, might end up being more than cameos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:27:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23557567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Takes place after the battle of New York and before Ultron. Bruce is trying to piece his life together and things get in the way.Victor is nicer in this than in the comics, still a murderer who wants to take over the world but he has empathy and can reflect on his actions better.There might be a little Bruce/Loki in the future, not sure though. Also this isn't a Bruce whump where he is a nice, soft guy who has bad things happen to him. He is fully aware of his own actions and the kinds of people he ends up associating with. So, a little morally grey Bruce.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Tony Stark, Bruce Banner/Victor von Doom, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Kudos: 3





	Before the Storm

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: Suicidal ideation at the beginning

06/05/2012 10AM

Bruce Banner sat at the edge of his massive bed that was fitted with expensive sheets, Egyptian cotton he thinks and looked out the window/wall that was a one-way view of New York City. It was amazing. He hated it. He was dissociating, he knew it, and yet allowed it to happen. It wasn’t due to anxiety or fear so there was no chance of the Hulk. It was due to despair. As his consciousness floated away leaving his body, which now felt like a corpse, rotting from the inside, he wondered out the window and plummeted to the ground. It was fun to imagine it. So he did imagine it at least 10 more times. The sound of his skull cracking against asphalt pavement. The red blood coating bystanders. Over and over again. It was better than flying. Maybe it was because the only way he could feel free was to be dead, but not dead dead, just the sort of death that you can get from being not there. It reminds him of that overused saying of “if a tree falls in a forest but no one is there to hear it, did it make a sound?” He would very much like to be that silent sound. He now imagined being part of the crowd that saw his broken body, unrecognisable as human after such impact. At around 260m high, 161kmp/h, it would take 8.5seconds. A gun would be faster. He then imagined that. It would look funny. His body laughed, it sounded fake. He thinks he should be crying, maybe he is but then he remembers corpses don’t cry. Unless he was an undead corpse, like a vampire. It laughed again. Wait wasn’t he in the crowd outside the building? He went there again and looked back up at his window and looked further up to see the big STARK sign. It made him angry. Fuck, time to come back before He takes over. Something quick. He managed to get the body moving, it was hard, he wasn’t fully back yet. Everything looked blurry. He went into the bedside draw and chose the revolver over the knife. It had one bullet in it. He spun the cylinder and held it to his head. His mind starting to resurface. The gun finally feeling real. 1 in 6 chance, the odds are in his favour but the consequences if he does it wrong would be catastrophic. Sure Tony has the room sealed off, even if he turns no one would be hurt. However, for him, this could result in Hulk having full control, maybe even his death, or maybe just a coma, or even just a month-long migraine like last time. He could really fuck up if he pulls the trigger and the bullet is loaded in the barrel. The adrenaline brings him to life. It feels amazing. He doesn’t need to pull the trigger, he’s back. He puts the gun back in the draw, does a quick succession of 15 jumping jacks to keep the elevation and then forces himself to laugh for 20 seconds increasing dopamine. He’s sure he looks like an idiot, but it helps. Ok, coffee and journaling time. Bruce leaves the room, which is too spacious and clean for his liking, and goes into his own kitchen, he has a whole floor to himself. After making the instant coffee, making sure to not start drifting (this means fidgeting, a lot of fidgeting, and positive, easy thoughts – nothing too complicated or he would get lost again). He finished making the coffee and sat down at the kitchen bench (dark grey marble). Bruce got out his journal, it was minimalistic, unnoticeable amongst other books, and started writing in a sparkly, light blue, gel pen. The colour provided stimulation and improved concentration. He hates that he knows all these things, that he needs to know all these things but, again, it helps. 

Journal- I dissociated, it was pretty bad. I think the reason was because the room was so big. It made me feel small and exposed. Also I’m kind of alone with my own thoughts. There is no-one else here but Tony and he’s always busy. My thoughts suck. I started thinking about the room more. It could fit a family. I feel bad for staying here. No-one should have this much luxury. It’s unnecessary, immoral even. I thought about leaving. But the idea of the future confrontation with Tony made me anxious. I can’t tell him I hate his money, his tower, his work, what he stands for. All those thoughts are bad, but they’re not necessarily wrong. I wish I was someone who didn’t care. I hate caring. And feeling. I hate being alive. I think I envy Jarvis. Yeah, I’m going to leave. Go back into medicine, work at a clinic for the disadvantaged. It will keep me busy, and its high stress, which for some reason really helps. Oh, and the gun worked. Thanks past me.

Bruce knows the writing was simple, he tended to regress after episodes. It read like a six-year-old, 13 if he was someone else. That was an arrogant thought. He likes arrogant thoughts, means he’s in a good mood. But an impulsive mood. He thinks he will just take the day off. Work on moving out tomorrow.

06/05/2012 2PM

Bruce had watched an episode of Criminal Minds. It was kind of dumb and made mental illness to look dangerous but for some reason it was just right in its simplicity and fast pace. It was also episodic in nature so he could start at any point. That used to be how most tv shows were made as it needed to be easy and understandable enough for someone to flick on the tv and get the gist of things without seeing the previous episode. A reason why Law and Order was so popular. Now, with streaming, shows that you can binge watch are coming to the forefront. Tony has all the streaming networks and a VPN that allows Bruce to change which country his IP address was based in. It was cheating the system, but he doesn’t really care, there’s no harm in it. He feels like the sort of person who should watch documentaries, but he finds he could access more information at a faster speed if he just looked it up. The internet is a god save. He remembers the days he had to quite literally sneak encyclopaedias into the house as though it was contraband. His dad was the kind of person to find anyone doing anything to better themselves without his advice and, more importantly, his control to be an undermining of his authority. He used to have to pretend he was less intelligent than he actually was. Now he likes being recognised as intelligent, he especially likes being smarter than others. He’s smarter than Tony, that feels nice. Tony knows, knew as soon as he saw Bruce (he told Bruce about it a few days ago). For some reason Tony doesn’t seem to mind this fact, Bruce guesses that that makes Tony a better person then him. That’s okay. 

Now he is doing a basic research (catching up by reading other people’s work – boring but necessary) on stem cells and the application of them in regrowing parts of the body. Two things that he’s focusing on right now was the overview of how it works and the ethics behind it. It also led to another interesting question- how complex can the part be. Could they start growing organs? This is all connects to his main topic of research, recreating a mind. If he could grow a brain, could he mirror the electrical impulses found in another’s brain, would they be thinking the same thing. But all that is so far into the future, we haven’t even been able to map the pathways in a brain yet. Tony Stark’s AI is close, well closer than other people’s attempts. However, it is just a complex algorithm. It can’t feel, have intentions, wants, needs, desires. It can grow in terms of learning new reactions to help with the base directions, but it cannot change the directions to suit its own personality. Thus it cannot have an independent personality. That’s the next step... Jarvis interrupts his concentration with a beep: it’s the AI’s version of a knock.

“Yeah, Jarvis.” Bruce Banner replied. When he had first got here, he was very nervous about the communication between him and Jarvis. He did not know what was appropriate, or how Jarvis would react to tones and facial tics. Like, if he didn’t look in the camera to show eye contact, or he didn’t sound excited enough, or if he didn’t stop immediately with what he was doing so he can give Jarvis his full attention would that be considered rude? Tony laughed at him when he picked up on Bruce’s anxieties and said that it was impossible for Jarvis to be offended. It didn’t help Bruce right away as he was still new to it but over time, he grew accustomed to the AI.  
“Master Stark would like to know if you would want to join him and Ms Potts in the main dining room for dinner at 6pm.” That was new; Tony wasn’t one for formal interaction. Bruce liked that about him. It must be of Pepper’s design. 

“I’d love to. Thank you, Jarvis.” Jarvis didn’t reply. Bruce suspects Tony must have told him to limit conversation to only what’s necessary when it comes to Bruce. It was a nice thought, and in a way he’s thankful, however he can not help to think he has become too accustomed to silence. It was an uncomfortable thought. Even more reason for his move out. Tonight was the perfect time to bring it up.

06/05/2012 5:45PM  
He had gotten dressed in a simple attire. Tan pants and a violet button up, not all the way buttoned up though as he did not want to appear too formal. He took the elevator down; it was only two levels below him. There were a few unoccupied levels that he believes are also guest floors. All the levels from 60 and above(there are 93 floors) can only be accessed by a few select personnel. It is mainly living space and personal workspaces. The other 59 are offices and employee laboratories. There are two whole floors dedicated to housing the computer mainframe. Bruce spent near 8 hours there, it was a marvel. However, it could not beat the amazement of seeing Tony’s lab for the first time, or the gratefulness in seeing his own. He’s going to miss it. 

The floor that has the dining room is the communal living space decked with a kitchen, living room, theatre and gym (which includes a 4 lane 25metre pool and heated spa). It was sad almost, all this place for life and yet there is a pressurising feel of emptiness. He could imagine the Avengers living here, he could even imagine Tony asking each and every one of them and Bruce being the only one to say yes. He doesn’t have to imagine Tony constantly being around hoping for connection but never getting the amount he wanted and then isolating himself once again with half persons. And he doesn’t have to imagine how alone that made Bruce feel, and, not being one to pry but it was almost palpable, how it made Pepper Potts feel. There was a sense of guilt of not being good enough, although that was something Bruce has felt looming over him since his earliest memories. He wants to do good, be good in a way and he now understands that he can’t achieve it here. With reinvigorated purpose he enters the dining room at 5:50PM.  
It was Vietnamese takeout from one of Bruce’s favourite places. He couldn’t help but smile. There was even Baby Bok Choy Stir-fry and Vegetarian Banh Cuon laid out his normal spot (still covered as to not let out heat). It was perfect. Pepper Potts was in the adjoining kitchen with a glass of red wine. She wore a white button down and blue jeans.

“Hi, Bruce.” Pepper said with an award-winning smile as Bruce came to join her. He thinks maybe he has time to make some de-caff green tea. 

“Hi, uh, how was your meeting with ‘Siemens’?” Siemens was a renewable energy company Pepper was interested in. They also worked in helping to help further digitalise in other countries. She thought it was good PR for ‘Stark Industries’ to be working alongside them, show Tony to be a team player. Of course, she would be doing most of the communication knowing Tony. 

“It went really well. We still have the patent on the ARC tech, but they are ready to implement it in some disadvantaged areas. I’m hoping, if we succeed and have proof of cost benefits from our potential work with ‘Siemens’, we can convince maybe even big businesses to move to greener energy.” She lit up talking about it going into all the plans she has made for the company. He was happy to listen, sipping on his green tea. 

“So, I heard from Tony your looking into mapping neural pathways?” Pepper asked after finishing up on ‘Siemens’. 

“Uh, yeah.” He began to smile sheepishly “Kind of went on a tangent into stem cells which is overly ambitious based on where I’m up to in my research. I mean sure they can be used for some specialised tissue, even as complex as to help fix spinal cord injuries but when it comes to actually growing things, I mean that might not -” 

“Don’t let him talk your ear off on systems neuroscience. He is obsessed.” Tony teased, coming in 10 minutes late but 30 minutes earlier than Bruce expected.

“That’s rich, coming from you.” Pepper quipped back. Banter came easy to the two of them. Tony leaned and gave Pepper a kiss. At times like these Bruce can’t help but feel like a voyeuristic outsider. He decides to look at anything else but them. 

“Come, let’s eat.” Tony announced as he made his way to the table. Pepper and Bruce followed, both catching a smile from Tony’s constant energy. Tony and Pepper sat side by side and Bruce opposite them. 

“Fuck yeah, I love Vietnamese food.” Tony said surprised, confirming Bruce’s idea that this was set up by Pepper. They then all talked together in between eating food. It was great but off somehow. He felt Tony looked at him too many times, tried too hard to keep him included and lowered the bluntness to a noticeable level. Bruce couldn’t figure out why, so he continued to go along with the flow of the conversation, keeping his paranoia to the back of his mind. He was going to bring up his plans for the future but wanted to talk to Tony one on one. 

06/05/2012 8PM  
Pepper left 5 minutes ago, they were now on the couches in the living room, now was the time. 

“I wanted to talk-” “I’ve been meaning to-” They both spoke at the same time.

“You go first.” Tony says.

“No, you go.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah”

“Okay, so this is a bit awkward. But, um, I got a notification from Jarvis.” Bruce’s breath catches, his mouth goes dry and a creeping feeling from his stomach makes its way to his throat, squeezing. 

“The gun?” He doesn’t look Tony in the eye as he asks, already knowing the answer. Looking back on it, the whole situation was dumb, unbelievably so. Why would he think that was a good idea? He had other methods. He just felt so dead at that time, so lost. He wasn’t in his right mind… But wait how did Tony know about this? 

“Yeah. That’s why I organised this dinner to talk to you about it.” But that would mean…

Bruce gets to his feet; he can sense a tint of green making its way to the surface, but he suppresses it as much as he can. Breathe in, breathe out. Okay, now it’s time to confront Tony.

“Vietnamese is my favourite” Tony looks confused by this sudden change in conversation and the way Bruce said that with anger.

“Yeah, I ordered-”

“Stop” Bruce interrupted “You organised the dinner and acted all surprised about it when you saw the food. For what reason? To put us on a more even footing during the night, so that I won’t feel as though things are out of balance. Just so you bring something like this up.”

“You are reading way too much into this Bruce. I just wanted to talk about the gun, I was worried. I am worried.”

“You don’t get to be worried, you spied on me. You took away my privacy and any kind of trust I had in you.” Bruce took Tony’s silence as an opportunity to bring up the issue “The thing I wanted to bring up was me moving out. Now that I know that I’m not safe here, I think now should be the time I pack my things. Thanks for having me, goodbye Tony.” 

Bruce leaves the room and takes the elevator up to his room. His neck hairs were on end. It was stupid, he knows Tony would never try to hurt him, but his mind has left the rational part and was in full flight or fight mode. Anything that limits his control or makes him feel people are watching him triggers this response. The control issue stems from his dad and the watching from the army. It’s unfair to take his trauma out on Tony, even if he didn’t respect Bruce’s boundaries, so he thinks the best thing to do is just leave the room. People would say that is him running away from his problems, but those people don’t know what happens when Bruce escalates, and he’s not talking about the Hulk. 

06/05/2012 8:40PM  
Bruce has finished packing up his stuff, including the left-over money – nondisclosure payment of $50,000 from shield, he still has $46,435 in cash. He doesn’t trust banks and is thinking of maybe putting most of it into stock or crypto, something easily liquidated so no real estate or trusts. He’s leaning towards crypto as it’s easy to access from anywhere and it’s fairly safe, the stock has a better return rate but requires more effort and it makes him feel sleazy for some reason. Bruce has calmed down some, in his younger years he would be seeing red and trying to break as many of Tony’s things as possible just to see them destroyed but he has the green guy now so he can no longer indulge his rage. There is a knock on his, a 95% chance its Tony (the other 4.5% being Pepper and 0.5% some sort of government organisation – he always keeps that 0.5% open no matter how safe he was, in places like India it was 60% and sure both of these numbers are probably overestimated but he likes to keep on his toes and mentally prepare for the worst). 

“Come in.” Bruce calls out

Tony enters.

“Before you say anything,” Tony starts with his hands in a slight surrendering position hoping to ease the tension. “I just want to clear some things up.” Bruce stays silent allowing Tony to continue.

“The cameras don’t record anything, they autodelete any footage, like completely erase it, when they are in people’s rooms. You are a risk, not just because of the big green guy but also because of the interest that others have in you, so I set up the camera to flag any threats. Like you being 2.4metres tall or maybe someone pulling out a gun. It’s a monitoring system not a recording system and it’s unhackable. Even I can’t get into it, there is no override code. And the dinner, there was no premeditation or really any sense of intention behind my actions, I was just being awkward in an awkward situation. I sometimes lie for the sake of lying not because I want anything to come from it but because, well, I don’t know… It was wrong so I’m sorry. And the reason why it took so long to talk to you after I got the notification is because it was meant to flair up for like other people danger type stuff, it caught me off guard. I didn’t know what to do. So I did some research and everything I came across, I mean everything, said that the best thing to do is to talk to the person to ask if they are alright. I’m pretty sure I went about it the wrong way, but that was my intentions.”

A moment passes.

“I don’t mind the cameras so much now that you have explained how they work but still you should have told me and given me the option to turn them down.” Bruce replies.

“Yeah, I know…It was wrong of me, I see that now.”

“I’m sorry that I jumped to conclusions, thank you for caring, in your own way. I’m alright, there’s uh, no need to worry.”

“Really?”

“Yeah” 

“Cool, well I’m here for you. I just want you to know that.” 

“Thanks. Same goes for me to you.” Bruce paused for a bit “A piece of advice, if you ever get any other guests maybe tell them about the monitoring system, I especially don’t think Natasha will take too kindly to it.”

“She probably would have brought her own spy equipment for an extensive bug sweep.”

They both smile at the thought and the tension eases up a bit. A momentary but significant thought comes to Bruce, what happens if Bruce’s own predilection to manipulation and lying as a learned defence mechanism is so entwined into his own being that it caused him to assume it of Tony? He will think on that later and work on convincing all parts of his brain to see Tony as a friend. 

“So, you still leaving?”

“Yeah, not because of this though. I find myself too still here, I want to be doing more productive, helpful work like maybe at a clinic. I also feel uncomfortable using your resources like this, it would be inappropriate of me taking advantage of them and overstaying. I thank you for giving me a place to rest and sort myself out after the battle but it’s about time I continue living my life.”

“You don’t want mix up work and play.”

“Or conflate friendship with dependence.”

“That makes sense. However, we could solve this easily without completely severing our professional ties.” Bruce nods to let Tony know he’s open to suggestion. “I like your work on neuroscience, I want to join in and apply it to AI. This AI could act as a shield against further attacks, we won’t always be able to assemble and kick butt, it would be good to have back up.”

“An AI that has the complexity and creative ability to combat other sentient life forms as though itself is a sentient life form.”

“And it would also have the advantage that machines have, objective and logical thinking. With the added memory storage, comprehensive knowledge and multitasking capabilities.”

“Even the multitasking alone would give it an unbelievable edge on the human brain.” Bruce started to get excited, “This could even be applied in business organisation, marketing models, defence tactics and it may be able to change the way we define personhood, morality, art and music.”

This made Tony laugh.

“What?” Bruce asked

“Only you would get, potentially, the most intelligent being on this planet to paint so that we can tackle the philosophical question of ‘what is art?’.” 

Bruce joined Tony in on the laughter.

“How long have you bee working on this?” Bruce asked knowing that Tony wasn’t one to come to people with half baked ideas. 

“A while. Even got a name for it: Ultron.”

“Roman for Avenger, nice. So, what’s the proposal?”

Tony bit his lip as he thought.  
“If you want to move out, fine. If you want to work at a clinic, great. But you do the clinic part time and I get you 2, no, 3 days a week. I expect you to be also working in your own time so that you’re caught up. This floor, along with your lab. is open to you at all times. And we’d be working together as employees of ‘Stark Industries’, Pepper will handle the contract not me.” 

“That’s an offer I don’t think anyone can refuse.”

“I know. I’m a genius.”

“Mr. Stark I’d love to work alongside your genius.”

“Why, thank you Dr. Banner. Ms. Potts will have the contract sorted for tomorrow. So feel free to stay the night, or however long you want.”

“Thank you, Tony.”

“Don’t be thinking you got the most out of this deal, I just nabbed the best bio-chemist slash nuclear physicist slash neuroscientist slash green tank on the East Coast.”

“Just the East Coast?”

“Yeah, I heard there was this ‘Hulk 2’ in California so I can’t give you America.” Tony was smiling, glad that he can still work alongside his ‘Science Bro’. But it was time to leave, let Bruce think about the change of events.  
“Night, Brucie.”

“Goodnight, Tony.”

Bruce couldn’t help but think things are finally looking up for him.

He gets changed and goes to bed, puts in a quick masturbation session to relieve tension and get him sleepy. Since the incident that created the Hulk his fantasies revolved around men only, rather than men and women. He thinks it’s because of the chemical changes. He did some research and it’s been seen in other cases like transgendered individuals who start taking HRT. It was something he got used to, it’s not like he’s going to be getting in a relationship with anyone anyway. Maybe in a parallel universe he and Tony would be together but something like that can’t happen now, not with what he is, who he has become. Many people turn a blind eye to the darker parts of him once they see his dorky exterior (which is not a fabrication but rather just a part of himself). They stop questioning why he would be experimenting with gamma radiation to make super soldiers, why the army saw him as threat to be put down rather than a tool to be reasoned with, what things he did to stay alive and hidden. But that was in the past now, he finally has a chance to start a new life, a new him.


End file.
